Psychometric properties and characteristics of the Diabetes Self Management Scale.
Besher Gharaibeh, Ahmed Mohammad Al-Smadi, Diane Boyle
PMID 31406749WHAT IT FOUND
The 40-item Diabetes Self Management Scale scored consistently among 78 insulin-treated adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
It may help clinicians screen self-care, but its underlying dimensions were not tested.
Key findings
01Twenty of the original 60 Diabetes Self Management Scale items were deleted for poor characteristics or redundancy, leaving a 40-item scale.
02The 40-item scale had a high reliability estimate, Cronbach alpha = 0.947.
03Self-care scores were strongly related to self-efficacy scores (r = 0.8), moderately related to self-care agency scores (0.62), and weakly related to diabetes knowledge scores (0.26).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study used a convenience sample from 5 Midwest sites, so its results may not apply to other populations or settings. Only English-speaking adults taking insulin were included, and pregnant people and people with cognitive impairments were excluded. No Latino, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander participants were included. The sample size was too small to conduct factor analysis, so the scale's underlying structure was not tested. The design was descriptive and cross-sectional, which the authors noted may limit generalizability.
Declared interests
The author declared no conflict of interest, and the study received no funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the 40-item scale as proven to improve diabetes care or as valid for all people with diabetes. It was tested only in 78 English-speaking adults taking insulin, and the authors could not conduct factor analysis.